Legal AI Starter Lab

A free, no sign-up learning path for lawyers, librarians, students, and legal researchers who want to use AI tools more confidently.

This course helps legal professionals get started with Claude, ChatGPT, and Perplexity, then use them more confidently for source-grounded legal research workflows.

You can do a lot with AI assistants before connecting any legal research tools. As the lessons move into real legal research, we'll show when source-backed tools matter and how to check answers against citations, quotes, and source text.

1
Beginner

Intro to Legal AI

Start at square zero: what AI assistants are, what to try first, and why legal work needs sources.

2
Beginner

Know What You Can Put Into an AI Assistant

Use Claude, ChatGPT, or Perplexity without accidentally putting client or confidential information somewhere it does not belong.

3
Beginner

Same Model, With and Without Legal Sources

See what changes when GPT-5.6 answers directly versus when the same assistant can use legal source data.

4
Beginner

Connect and Test Descrybe Legal Engine

Make sure your assistant can actually use Descrybe before you ask it to do legal research.

5
Beginner

Turn a Vague Research Need Into a Usable Prompt

Learn the difference between a question that invites a confident guess and a question that invites verifiable research.

6
Beginner

Run Your First Research Roadmap

Use an assistant to create a research plan before it starts answering.

7
Beginner

Find Cases Without Trusting the AI's Memory

Make the assistant search for authority and explain why each result matters.

8
Beginner

Check a Citation or Quoted Sentence

Use AI for verification work without letting it silently invent the result.

9
Beginner

Run the Legal AI Research Loop

Put the course together: prompt, roadmap, source-backed authority, follow-up questions, and verification.